Traitors mission
by Dasati
Summary: Abandoned by his people, Berossus seeks a new purpose to life, will he find it in the service of the forsaken?


Thanks as always go to Chris Metzen for creating the world of warcraft, hope you all enjoy the story

"You have your instructions, now go"

Varimathras's deep baritone voice was full of authority and reverberated within the confines of the throne room. Berossus inclined his head to his master and swiftly departed. Despite the obvious power of its inhabitants, the throne room itself was nondescript, lacking much in the way of ornamentation as found in some of the more pompous rulers' seats of power. The Dark Lady had no use for such gaudy displays of wealth or power, all that came in her presence new her true power and if any reminder was needed, the hulking form of Varimathras at her side aptly supplied it. Marching from the room, Berossus mused on his latest assignment; as one of a limited number of dwarfs amongst the forsaken he was uniquely suited for special operations involving the dwarves of Khaz Modan, an advantage regularly employed by Varimathras and the Deathstalkers. It seemed an upstart member of the dwarven senate was attempting to rally support for an offensive against the Horde's holdings in and around Lordaeron, as the leader of the horde in the eastern kingdom's, the banshee queen had decided the easiest method to avoiding such a distraction was to simply have the senator in question removed. As leader of the Deathstalkers, the task of executing the orders had fallen to Varimathras and now to Berossus.

Regarding himself as some what of a professional, Berossus' thoughts had begun devising a plan of action the moment he'd received his orders, it was obvious he would need some means by which to disguise himself as the sight of an undead dwarf strutting towards the gates of Ironforge could be, at the very least, problematic. He quickly decided a visit to the mages was required and set off for the magic quarter, all the while mentally compiling a list of what he would need for this mission. His arrival in the magic quarter went completely unnoticed by it's occupants who were all engaged in various activities ranging from reading through arcane tomes to bizarre experiments beyond his understanding. He quickly decided to employ Varimathras's authority and made his way to were the more powerful mages resided. He found only one resident in the rooms delegated for the forsaken's arch magi, a particularly ugly mage, even by undead standards. Dameris had not noticed Berossus enter the room, his lips moving silently in some obscure incantation as his left hand drew arcane symbols in the air. Having lost his right eye before being taken by the plague Dameris had the most un-settling habit of his eyeless socket shining a sickly green whenever he cast a spell, a trait which never failed to make even the hardiest orc warrior feel queasy. With utter disregard for the mage's activities, Berossus proceeded to smoothly gather a tome from a nearby stack and in one fluid motion hurled it directly at Dameris's head. The impact of the tome completely shattered the mages concentration, disrupting whatever spell he had been in the process of casting, resulting in the destruction of a sizeable section of the wall in front of him. Once the dust had settled Dameris glared at Berossus with his remaining eye,

"Idiot, do you have any idea what could have happened if I'd been working on a more potent spell?" he spat in the guttural voice common amongst the undead.

"I don't know and I don't care. Varimathras has given me an assignment and I need your assistance to complete it, so be quiet and make yourself useful. I need a spell to disguise myself long enough to slip into Ironforge for a day or so and out again" Berossus's voice was clear and commanding, the ravishes of the plague having spared his vocal chords for the most part.

"Consider yourself lucky your orders come from Varimathras else I'd turn you into a squirrel and hand you over to the apprentices for their experiments" grumbled Dameris as he rummaged through a stack of scrolls. Whilst the mage searched for the needed spell, Berossus took in his surroundings; the room itself was a complete mess even without the pile of rubble from the recently destroyed wall, stacks of arcane tomes filled every corner and every centimetre of the floor was covered in spell scrolls displaying archaic runes and text. The only illumination in the room came from two burning torches on either side of the entrance. Berossus also noticed that the noise of the explosion and collapsing wall had not even drawn a single curious spectator and mused that random explosions must be a common occurrence amongst the mages.

"Aha! There it is" exclaimed Dameris drawing forth a scroll in particularly poor condition. Wishing to get rid of the irritating dwarf as swiftly as possible, Dameris wasted no time in drawing forth an orb from the recesses of his tattered robes and reciting the incantation from the scroll. The orb glowed an unnatural light as the mage pronounced each syllable, growing to an almost blinding brightness at the completion of the spell, before fading to a murky black.

"There, just hold the orb in your hand and think of what you want to look like to activate the spell, once you do so it will last for 24 hours before fading, so whatever it is you have to do make sure you're done and out of Ironforge by then. Now go away and leave me in peace." Dameris handed the orb to Berossus and waved dismissively before returning to rummaging through a pile of scrolls.

Having obtained that which he came for, Berossus speedily departed the mage quarter and headed for the Apothecarium, intending to enlist the services of the Royal Apothecary Society and their expert knowledge of poisons, plagues and other contagions. The Apothecarium itself was veiled in the fumes of the various poisons, mushrooms and numerous other lethal items used in the apothecary's experiments as they worked to devise a new plague. Wishing to waste as little time as possible Berossus headed straight for Master Apothecary Faranell, who was presently bent over a work table pouring vials of bubbling liquid into a beaker. Having more respect for the apothecaries than mages, Berossus waited until the master apothecary noticed him before speaking.

"Master Apothecary, I have been assigned a mission to assassinate a dwarven senator by Varimathras, I need a slow acting poison, preferably one which will not kill the intended victim for at least 12 hours and makes it look like death by natural causes"

The master apothecary gave no outward sign that he had heard the dwarf speak, simply staring at him with the golden eyes common to all the Forsaken, but as Berossus was about to repeat himself, the apothecary marched to a storage cabinet and withdrew a vial of clear liquid from within, before moving back to his worktable and pouring the vial into a small water skin.

"This should do the trick, just mix it with any liquid and once the intended victim drinks it in twelve to fourteen hours, depending on what it is mixed with, the poison will have worked its way through the targets system into his heart where it will solidify, stopping his heart immediately; death will be instantaneous" he instructed before handing the water skin to Berossus and returning immediately to his work. The fact he had been so casually dismissed annoyed him, but Berossus knew that even an assignment from Varimathras was insignificant compared to the charge placed upon the Master Apothecary and his colleagues by the Dark Lady herself. With the necessary tools for the completion of his assignment now in his possession, Berossus headed for the bat rider in the inner ring of the Undercity intending to travel to Tarren Mill in the Hillsbrad foothills before proceeding south to Ironforge. Before climbing on to the back of his mount, Berossus took one last look at, for want of a better word, his home, knowing that he would not return for at least a week. It was that thought which filled his mind as his mount took off and headed out of the Undercity into the darkness of Tirisfal Glades.


End file.
